Armstrong was originally established as a peaceful agricultural colony in 2613. It was a quiet and self sufficient place until 2639, when the Confederation established shipyard and training facilities there during the Kilrathi war. It lasted untouched to the end of the Kilrathi war, and was largely ignored following it save for serving as the base for a number of pointed investigations into Crest Industries.

In 2675, Confed forces sourced out of Armstrong began clearing the mine fields in Oldziey. Following their entry into the system, they were attacked by Oldziey native forces and forced out of the system. This event touched off a series of Confederation attempts to regain control of the system that lasted until the Chandley incident, at which point Armstrong's Confederation command staff determined that they needed to consolidate their strength to hold onto the cluster. At present, Armstrong is engaged in a military buildup to replace the equipment and supplies that had been provided by the rest of the Confederation, and to stave off an anticipated Oldzien invasion of the cluster.

Armstrong houses a large number of shipyards that were used by the Confederation Navy in the Kilrathi war. Materials have to be sourced out of system, usually from Sommers. Crest representatives have lately also been offering sales of large amounts of minerals recently, ostensibly sourced from Aldrin. Armstrong also houses the training and command infrastructure of Confederation forces in the cluster. In light of the recent internal conflicts following the Chandley incident, the top command posts at Armstrong lie unfilled, leaving many quite nervous as to the future of the Confederation in the cluster.

Armstrong also hosts the cluster's only significant MOG (Multiplayer Online gaming) scene. On most planets, there simply aren't enough people around to play - and despite many attempts, no one has found a reliable way to do satisfactorily fast MOGs through a jump point; it is barely possible between planets of the same system, involving dedicated relays (small automated craft whose only purpose is to ferry data faster than light) expensive enough that this has only really been established in Sol. Armstrong's population is large enough to support a single significant MOG. Popular media changes with the audience's tastes; currently, the MOG - produced by Crest - is about a magic kingdom of fairies (winged humans) who moved here some time ago, living in peace with the native Eared Folk (stylized lagos), who recently accepted a large group of refugee Furrah (Kilrathi in all but name), who fled the warlike lizardmen (loosely based on descriptions of Nephilim) - and more importantly, according to recently released plot, their fellow Furrah who preferred a life of nothing but war, summoned the Nephilim just to have worthy opponents, and tried to conscript those who sought an alternative to violence. Famously, when a functionary of Armstrong's government recently speculated about these parallels, and asked the MOG's creative director for content to help people deal with the aftermath of Chandley, his request was declined with two words: "Too soon."